“There she is,” said one Pandora out of a group of three, looking at their intended target.

“Yeah, it’s her alright,” said another of the group, “but she’s not alone.  She’s got a Limiter and another Pandora with her.”

“Think they’re part of the same group?” asked the third.  “With the way she’s holding him, I’d say it’s a fair assumption.”

“Maybe,” said the first.  “Though whether they’ve been baptized or not is anybody’s guess.  I’m gonna go out on a limb and say no.”

“Think he’ll try to intervene?” asked the second Pandora.

“Not sure,” said the first.  “But if he’s not baptized, then it shouldn’t really matter whether he does or not.  Just give him a love tap if he tries to be a hero and this should go smoothly enough.”

“What about the other Pandora?” asked the third.  “What if she decides to jump in?”

“She’s fair game if she does,” answered the first.  “Far as I can tell, she’s not in our grade…probably a freshman by the looks of it.”

“Actually, now that I think about it, she might be the top-ranked freshman here at West Genetics,” said the second.  “She looks like it from what I remember reading about it.”

“So…the top-ranked 1st-year and 2nd-year Pandoras are paired up with that Limiter, huh?” said the 3rd member.  “Interesting.  If she decides to jump in, it’ll be fun to see how the top freshman fares in combat.”

“So are we doing this then?” asked the 2nd.

“As long as we move fast and wrap this up before any witnesses show up, we should be fine.  We’re just gonna give lil’ miss “Angel of Confinement” a little lesson in humility, that’s all.  Ready?”

“Ready,” answered the other two in unison.

“Then let’s do this,” said the first with a small grin.

………

“So are you guys thinking fish or chicken?” asked Kaho.

“We could just make both,” answered Kazuya, currently propped up against Ganessa as the Pandoras headed towards their on-campus residence.  “That way there is more than one meat option for anyone who prefers one or the other.”

“Fair point,” said Ganessa as she carried Kazuya.  In truth, she was less concerned about the meal itself than the matter of whether or not she would have Kazuya in her lap while they ate.  By the time the others came back from their medical exams, chances were good that she would be asked to hand over Kazuya to someone else in the group, in the spirit of fairness.  While Ganessa understood that it would be the mature thing to do, given the amount of time she had Kazuya to herself up to this point, it didn’t mean that she was particularly happy to do so.

Perhaps that is simply what love and affection does to the minds of younger people.  When they come, they can hit like a freight train going at top speed.

Still, out of consideration to her fellow “sisters,” Ganessa would hand over Kazuya when the time came, content that she had him in her possession for now and enjoying every moment of it.

The walk should have been blissfully uneventful, with the two Pandoras making their way home, but sadly that was not to be the case.

Feeling that something was off, with a sense of foreboding premonition, Ganessa subconsciously tightened her grip on Kazuya as she scanned her surroundings, feeling like they were being watched.

“You okay, Ganessa?” asked Kaho.  “You’re looking kind of…serious at the moment.  Everything alright?”

“I think we’re being followed,” replied the pigtailed redhead.

“By whom?” asked Kazuya.

“Not sure just yet,” answered Ganessa.

A moment later, she got her answer as a 10’10’’ redheaded Pandora descended from the sky, wielding a large axe in both hands as she prepared to make a downward vertical strike.

“Move!” shouted Ganessa as she dashed several feet to her left, holding Kazuya firmly in her arms as she darted out of the way.  Kaho did the same thing, darting to the right.  Seconds later, the axe-wielding Pandora came crashing down to earth, her volt weapon tearing into the stone walkway where Ganessa and Kaho stood a moment ago.

“What the hell!?” asked Ganessa at what had just occurred.  Though she didn’t have too much time to figure out what was going on, because a few seconds later, a steel chain with a small weight attached to the end came darting like some kind of tentacle straight towards Ganessa’s head.  She just managed to cock her head to the side, the chain nicking her cheek in the process.  A few seconds later, she heard a battle cry ring out as she saw an 11’4’’ Pandora with long, dark orange hair wearing sneakers, denim short shorts, fingerless black gloves, and a super-short-cut Genetics uniform top came dashing towards her, a broadsword in each of her hands.

Ganessa immediately dashed backwards as the sword-wielding Pandora slashed vigorously towards her, swinging each sword in a back-to-back motion and not letting up.  It looked like Ganessa was in a real pickle, given that she still held Kazuya securely in both arms and thus was limited in her means to defend herself.

Just as the sword-wielding Pandora was about to make another strike, she was surprised to find that her sword made contact with another sword, well more accurately a tanto blade…

…held in the hand of one Kaho Hiiragi.

“What the hell are you guys doing!?” shouted Kaho as she held her blade against the other Pandora’s broadsword.

By this point, the redheaded axe-wielding Pandora had joined up standing alongside a rather buxom 10’6’’ Pandora with mid-length black hair tied up in a short ponytail, holding a chain with weighted ends in her hands.  Both of them wore the standard Genetics school uniform as opposed to the more customized one their sword-wielding comrade wore.  The two of them readied their weapons once more, preparing to strike.

“Answer my question!” demand Kaho.  “Who are you and why are you attacking us!?”

“Audrey Duval, 2nd-ranked 2nd-year,” answered the red-headed axe wielder.

“Aika Takeuchi, 3rd-ranked 2nd-year,” replied the buxom, black-haired chain wielder.

“Trish McKenzie, 4th-ranked 2nd-year,” smirked the orange-haired sword-wielder.

“So why are you attacking us?” asked Kazuya.

“They’re here for me,” replied Ganessa.

“What?” asked both Kazuya and Kaho.

“I fought these girls at the Carnival.  They all tried to gang up on me during the final part of the battle, and I ended up beating them.  I’m guessing that they’re sore losers over the whole matter so now they want to get even with me, even though I beat them fair and square.”  At this point, Ganessa set Kazuya on the ground and walked forward.

“Kazuya, stay back, understand?” said Ganessa in a firm tone of voice.

“I can’t just leave you to fight against them,” insisted the young man.

“I’m not going to endanger my Limiter,” replied Ganessa firmly with conviction.  “Just stay back and don’t get involved.  This is for me to deal with.”

“Not you alone,” said Kaho.  “Three against one isn’t what I’d call sportsmanlike, so what say we try and even the playing field a little bit?”  Kaho readied her volt weapons as Ganessa summoned forth her “Chains of Binding,” with all four chains materializing out of her backside.

“You two wanna take the pigtailed bitch then?” asked Trish to her compatriots.  “I’ll play with her friend.”

“You sure?” asked Audrey.

“I wanna see what the top-ranked freshman Pandora here is made of,” replied Trish with a grin.

“If you’re sure,” replied Aika as she started whipping her chain in a circular pattern, preparing to throw it at a moment’s notice.

“Okay then,” said Audrey, gripping her axe firmly in both hands as she eyed Ganessa with serious determination in her face.

A moment later, Audrey and Aika charged forth towards Ganessa while Trish focused on Kaho.  Ganessa in turn jumped around the battlefield, doing her utmost to dodge both Audrey’s strikes while at the same time factoring in Aika’s chain moving about, sometimes coming at her like a spear thrust while other times whipping across like a sword strike.  She was certainly getting a workout with the two of them tag teaming on her the way they were.

While that was going on, Trish started letting into Kaho furiously, her broadswords clashing against Kaho’s tanto blades as sparks shot out from each clash of metal on metal.  To her credit, Kaho was holding her own, though she had to put in a lot of strength to keep a steady grip on her volt weapons, given the amount of raw force Trish was putting into her sword strikes.

‘She’s strong,’ thought Kaho as their blades clashed.  ‘I need to try and find an opening soon.  In a battle of attrition, she’s probably gonna outlast me, so I gotta wait for a moment to parry and try and knock her off, then go in for the kill.’

“What’s wrong?” mocked Trish.  “Don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got.  Because if it is, then I weep for your class, freshman.  You’re not gonna last long out in the field if this is the best you can do.”

“Shut up!” yelled Kaho as she prepared for another strike, which Trish managed to dodge quickly enough.  Half the time, she didn’t even counter or block against Kaho’s attacks, preferring to dodge to one side or another.

While that was going on, Ganessa was tied up with trying to fend off the two Pandoras who were relentlessly going after her.  Given Audrey’s volt weapon, she kept her distance relatively close to Ganessa, never being more than four or five feet away from her in order for her axe to stay within striking range of Ganessa.  Meanwhile, Aika kept her distance between ten to fifteen feet, which was what her volt weapon could stretch out to.  While Audrey struck from one direction, Aika attacked from another direction, usually the exact opposite of Audrey in order to attack Ganessa from 180 degrees relative to Audrey’s attack, and thus keeping the Angel of Confinement on her toes all the while.

From his standpoint, Kazuya couldn’t help but stand in awe at the fight breaking out before him.  Here were these women whom he stood roughly crotch-high in comparison going at it in an all-out brawl, wielding deadly weapons.  It was one thing to look at a fight like the one at the Carnival on television screens and monitors, but it was another thing entirely to effectively have a front row seat to the action, watching these amazonian supermodel/supersoldiers go at it.

“Please stop,” said the young man, feeling the compulsion to act.  Even if he was basically half their heights and had no means of being able to physically intervene to stop any of these women, he simply couldn’t bring himself to just stand on the sidelines like a spectator.  Perhaps it would have been more prudent to run off and get help from a faculty member or another Pandora nearby, but in the heat of the moment, Kazuya felt compelled to take action himself.

“Please, don’t do this!” said the young man.  “What will this fighting accomplish or prove?”  He was speaking mainly to the three Pandoras who attacked their group, given that Ganessa and Kaho were basically just defending themselves.

“Stay out of this, little boy!” said Audrey.  “This is a matter strictly between Pandoras.”

“Yeah, run along home now,” added Aika in a rather mocking tone.

“Out of the way, runt!” yelled Trish as she brought her leg back and gave Kazuya a kick to his stomach, sending the young man flying back several feet and landing in the grass as he got the wind knocked out of him.

“KAZUYA!” yelled Kaho in alarm at what she just witnessed.

“You BITCH!” growled Ganessa as the look in her eyes transitioned from anger to pure rage.

A second later, a glow started to emanate around Ganessa’s whole body, with her hair becoming pure white, her irises becoming golden colored, light blue wristbands of energy formed around her wrists and ankles, and a bluish-white aura emanating around her entire body.

“Shit,” grumbled Audrey, “so it wasn’t just a fluke from before.  She really can activate Pandora Mode.”

“Should we fall back?” asked Aika.

“We came this far and you seriously wanna back down now?” scoffed Trish.

For her part, Audrey was on the fence as to whether they should proceed with their schoolyard brawl or not.  Even if they won, it wouldn’t change their rankings with the hierarchy among the 2nd-year Pandoras at West Genetics.  Of course, this wasn’t about rankings but a pure desire for payback against the one who defeated them at the Carnival.  They all knew that and decided to go through with it anyway, letting pride overrule logic in this situation.  The desire for vengeance was strong in all three of them…at the time anyway.

Now, with the battle dragging on like this and Ganessa Roland having activated Pandora Mode, the likelihood of winning had dropped significantly, given that none of the three could either activate Pandora Mode or even use Acceleration yet.  There was also the matter of the freshman Pandora to deal with, given that she was fighting in Ganessa’s corner.  While she wasn’t too much of a threat on her own, she could prove a relatively minor nuisance by pulling one of them away from the group (in this case being Trish who was fighting her).  Now that Ganessa had entered Pandora Mode, it would be best to have all three of them gang up on her, and therefore the freshman Pandora would ideally need to be knocked out of the fight in quick order.

Before she could make a decision to engage or to fall back, Audrey was suddenly put on the defensive as Ganessa charged forwards, with the sharpened weights on her Chains of Binding darting forward with a serpent-like strike.  What really surprised Audrey and the others was that Ganessa’s chains changed in number…from four to six.

“More chains!?” asked Aika in shock, not expecting the number to increase.

“Shit,” grumbled Trish in response, before returning to her battle against Kaho.  She was surprised to find that Kaho’s sword strikes were now significantly stronger and more focused.  While she initially expected the girl’s mind to be clouded by rage and for her to act out of raw emotion, she found that the anger actually made Kaho more focused in her fighting, not less.  The freshman Pandora was actually making Trish have to put more effort into blocking and dodging compared to just a few seconds ago.

The battle had now shifted with all three of the bully Pandoras going on the defensive, with Audrey and Aika dodging Ganessa’s chains while Trish alternated between blocking and dodging Kaho’s sword strikes.  Both Kaho and Ganessa were fighting with a renewed vigor after witnessing their Limiter be harmed, with killer intent shining in their eyes as they attacked.

For his part, Kazuya slowly got up and off the ground, finally being able to catch his breath after thirty seconds or so of having the wind knocked out of him.  It took a while for him to get his bearings, given how disoriented he felt from enduring a single kick to his solar plexus from the tall, sword-wielding Pandora.  Fortunately, he didn’t feel so incapacitated that he couldn’t eventually get back on his feet.  Looking at the sight before him, he was once again in awe at what he saw, given the sight of Ganessa in Pandora Mode and fighting with such ferocity against her two opponents, with Kaho matching that ferocity against her larger opponent in her own one-on-one fight.

“Please stop,” muttered Kazuya, feeling that the fight had gone on long enough and served no purpose.

“Stop right now!” he said as a Freezing field erupted outward from where he stood, stretching far across the field and trapping all five Pandoras within.  Immediately afterwards, all five of them were hunched on their hands and knees, completely unable to move.  While Audrey, Aika, and Trish felt particularly cold and were struggling just to breathe, Kaho and Ganessa started panting, sweating, and feeling very, very warm.  Like the other times Kazuya initiated a Freezing field onto them, they were experiencing the same sensation of euphoria akin to that of an Ereinbar Set.  The blushes on their faces certainly indicated that they couldn’t help but find the sensation to be quite pleasant.

“Please,” begged the young man, “no more of this fighting.  It won’t accomplish anything.  We’re not in a Carnival and there are no Nova present, so no more of this pointless brawling.”  Kazuya would have continued, but between the kick to his gut and the energy he had to bring forth to summon the Freezing field, he simply was too spent.  Content that at the very least the fighting had come to an end, he simply fell face-first into the grass and collapsed, which in turn dissipated the Freezing field and released the women.

A moment later, both Kaho and Ganessa ran forward to Kazuya, gently picking him up and resting his head in Ganessa’s lap as they examined him.  While that was going on, the other three Pandoras slowly got to their feet and assessed what had just happened.

“So I guess that Limiter did get baptized after all,” said Aika through panting breaths.

“Looks like it,” said Audrey.

“So what now?” asked Trish.  “He looks pretty spent, so I don’t think he’s gonna be up and about anytime soon.  Should we take another crack at them while their guard is down?”

“I’m not so sure at this point,” muttered Audrey.

“That won’t be necessary,” said another voice that sounded both calm and menacing at the same time.

Turning around, the three Pandoras came face-to-face with the lovely closed-eye visage of one Chiffon Fairchild, who followed through her statement with a firm punch to Audrey’s solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her with one blow and bringing her to her knees.

Aika and Trish barely had time to react as they themselves were pinned against the ground by several Pandoras soon after, with Trish pinned by Creo and Cassie and Aika pinned by Ingrid and Arnett.  A moment later, Elizabeth and Roxanne had swarmed onto Audrey and hat her pinned against the ground as well alongside her compatriots.

“I strongly advise that none of you move,” said Elizabeth in a deadly serious tone of voice.

“Ditto that sentiment,” added Roxanne in her own serious tone.

For their part, when Satellizer and Rana entered the fray, the looks on their faces indicated that they had half a mind to whip out their volt weapons and go berserk on the ones who dared harem their Limiter, especially Satellizer.  It took restraint from Chiffon, Ticy, and Holly to keep Satellizer from lashing out and cutting all three of the bully Pandoras to ribbons with her “Nova Blood.”

At the moment, Kazuya’s well-being was the primary concern.

“H-how did you find us?” asked Ganessa to the others.

“We sensed Kazuya’s Freezing field,” answered Chiffon.  “I knew that he wouldn’t unleash a Freezing area unless it was some kind of emergency situation.  How is he doing?”

“Got the wind knocked out of him, replied Kaho, “but other than fatigue I don’t think he’s in any serious danger.”  Chiffon nodded in thanks at the relatively good news before turning her attention back to the three Pandoras currently pinned against the ground.

“Do you know who I am by chance?” she asked them.

“Yes,” Audrey quietly answered while her two compatriots nodded.

“Good, then this’ll be short,” replied Chiffon before leaning down and grabbing Audrey by her hair and holding it so that she was facing towards Kazuya.

“That young man right there,” said Chiffon, “is my Limiter…is our Limiter, understand?” It was clear that Chiffon was speaking on behalf of all the Pandoras now on scene, minus Audrey and her cohorts of course.  Audrey simply nodded in fright, wondering if Chiffon was going to possibly rip her head from her neck using her bare hands.

“So now that you know that, you’re going to keep your distance from him, understand?” asked Chiffon as she dug her fingernails into Audrey’s scalp as she gripped the redhead’s hair more fiercely.

“Yes!” cried Audrey out of a mix of fear and pain.

“Because if any harm comes to him on account of any of you,” continued Chiffon, “then you’re going to have a whole lot of angry Pandoras to answer to, understand?  Consider yourselves very lucky that he’s okay, because otherwise I’d be bringing all three of you to the infirmary with severed limbs, got that?”

“Yes!” cried out Audrey once more.

Satisfied that she put the proverbial “fear of God” into them, Chiffon motioned for the other Pandoras to loosen up their grip on the trio.  She then gestured for a few of them to assist her.

“Elizabeth, Ticy, Ingrid, Roxanne, could you all accompany me in turning these three into the holding cells at the brig?” asked Chiffon.  In all honesty, Chiffon could have escorted them to the brig all by herself, but she might have to use force to incapacitate them and drag them to the building if any of them tried anything clever (most likely an escape attempt).  She figured that having it be five against three would dissuade the trio from trying to pull anything like that on the way over.

“Of course,” answered Elizabeth and Ticy simultaneously.

It would be beneficial for the top three ranking 3rd-year Pandoras to be the ones making the student arrest, given their stellar reputations at West Genetics.  Between the cases of the three troublemaker Pandoras and Chiffon’s group, it would be her word against theirs.

“The rest of you head back home and see to Kazuya, understand?” said Chiffon to the rest of the Pandoras (all 16 of them by this point, given that Chiffon’s group largely arrived as one on scene shortly after Kazuya’s Freezing field was deployed).

“Yes, ma’am,” said several of them simultaneously.

At that point, Kazuya was tenderly picked up in Satellizer’s arms, the worry pronounced on her face, given how smitten she was with the Limiter by this point.  It was pretty obvious that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed buxom beauty was most at peace when Kazuya was in her embrace, given how “head over heels” she was for him, though Rana was a close second when it came to that kind of affection for the young man if not dead even with Satellizer in that category.

Afterwards, Kazuya was whisked away to the group residency, leaving Chiffon and her group with the three troublemaker Pandoras.

“Alright then,” said Chiffon as she turned to Audrey’s group, “now follow me to the brig, ladies.  And if any of you try anything clever on the way over, I’m probably going to end up breaking bones, severing limbs, or possibly both.”

“Best to go for the legs,” added Roxanne.  “Removes the chance of them running away...more likely they'd be hobbling away at that point.”

“Indeed,” added Elizabeth.

“Shall we, ladies?” asked Ticy to the group, wanting to proceed as quickly as possible to hand them over to the authorities in order to see how Kazuya was faring.

“Let’s,” answered Chiffon as the five Pandoras headed off towards the brig with their newly acquired temporary wards, with all three of them in turn sweating bullets on the way over…more so out of fear from being in the presence of West Genetics’s “Unmatched Smiling Monster” and less out of whatever the campus authorities would do to them once handed over.  From their perspective, they could only hope that whatever punishment doled out to them wasn’t carried out by Chiffon herself, given that they had apparently attacked her Limiter (somewhat inadvertently, given that Kazuya wasn’t the intended target).